Tony Award-winning Red playwright John Logan is the creator-writer-executive producer of the pilot, which is being directed by executive producer Kathryn Bigelow. Lydia Dean Pilcher is also billed as an executive producer.

"The Miraculous Year," according to HBO, is a "dynamic exploration into a high-powered New York family. A wildly self-destructive and manipulative Broadway composer, trying to put on a challenging new show; his father, a brilliant and powerful painter, feeling the inevitable of effects of aging; and his sister, an attorney trying to distance herself from the wounding influence of art as she tries to hold her family together. These are the Segals, a family straining to balance dangerous and complex forces as they move thru the unfamiliar terrain of re-inventing their lives."

The pilot cast includes  Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz as Terry Segal, a Broadway composer and lyricist; Hope Davis as Mandy Vance, Terry's sister, a corporate lawyer; Tony winner Frank Langella as Alex Segal, Terry and Mandy's father, a world-class painter; Tony winner Eddie Redmayne as Connor Lynn, a performer in Terry's show; Linus Roache as Scott Vance, Mandy's husband; Tony winner Patti LuPone as Veronica, a Broadway star; Stark Sands as Duke Ellis, Veronica's son; Elaine Cassidy as Brona McKinney, Terry's assistant; Remy Nozik as Lara Vance, Mandy and Scott's daughter; and Logan Georges as Cameron Vance, Mandy's and Scott's son.

Among the guest stars in the pilot are Susan Sarandon as Patty Atwood, director/choreographer of Terry's new show; Lee Pace as Frank Moss, Terry's partner; Louis Ozawa Changchien as Tamil Lee, an art curator; Giancarlo Esposito as Harold Burton, Mandy's boss; Karine Plantadit as Nadine, a dancer in Terry's show; Brooks Ashmanskas as Fritz, Terry's librettist; Andre Ward as Mathius, a dancer in Terry's show; Erik Altemus as Brandon, a dancer in Terry's show; and Daniel Davis as Frederick, Terry's mentor.